Historical notices of events occurring chiefly in the reign of Charles I

Front matter

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 1924 097 312 114

The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.

Chapter I

To the Christian Header. Deliverances to Queen Elizabeth, and to the whole Land in general. Historical Notes. Numher of those who died in the Plague. A great Bundle of Mercies . 1

CHAPTEE n.

The Blazing Star. Strange Sights in the Air 11

Of the Bitterness of War. The Siege of Rochelle. Of the Power and Force of Prayer 112

Chapter X

Of the King and his Army going against Sootknd. Of a Great Navy of Spanish Ships at Sea. The King going with his Army the Second Time against Scotland 116

CHAPTER XL

Of the Exploits which the Soldiers did. Of the Bitterness of War (continued). Of the Misery we were in when our King wa-s gone to Scotland 122

CHAPTEE XII.

Of the Good we have gained by Prayer 132

CHAPTER XIII.

To the Courteous Reader 188

CHAPTEE XIV.

When the Parliament began. God's Mercies come flowing in amain. Articles put up against Archbishop Laud. Thirteen Bishops voted to be Delinquents. A Scandalous Archdeacon. An Act for abolishing and taking away all Archbishops, Bishops, &c. Notes 141

CHAPTER XV.

Of Scandalous Doctors. Of Scandalous Ministers. Of Unjust and Corrupted Judges. Of that Unjust and Corrupted Lord Keeper. Articles of Impeachment against Sir Thomas Gardiner . . 175

CONTENTS OF TEE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER XVI.

PAGE

Of Cruel Projectors with their Letters-Patent. Of the Deceit of the Farmers of the Custom-House • . 220

CHAPTER XVII.

Tlie Earl of Strafford, Deputy of Ireland, the Great Enemy of all Goodness ■ 224

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Enemies of God do flee 246

CHAPTER XIX.

Of the Plots and Dangers of the Wicked Papists against the Poor Church of God. Of the disarming of the Papists, and sending some to prison, and some to begone 248

CHAPTER XX.

Of Reformation in the Pulling Down of Altars and Images. Concerning the Sahhath-day. Of the Protestation. A Day of Fasting and Prayer, and a Day of Thanksgiving. Of the Enlargement of the Prisoners. A Store-bouse of Mercies opened unto lis. The King signeth and sealeth to many Acts in Parliament ■ . 25C

CHAPTER XXI.

Sad and Troublous Times. Six Worthy Members of the House charged with Treason unjustly. A Great Deliverance of those Six Worthy Members. The Captains of the City, and Captains of the Sea, go up to Westminster. Of the Petition of Buckinghamshire Men 275

CHAPTER XXII.

Of the Miseries' of Ireland. Of tho Sufferings of my Wife's Brother Zachariah in Ireland SOi")

INTEODUCTIOK

Nehemiah Wallington, the compiler of the work now published, was the tenth of the twelve children of John Wallington, and Elizabeth, his wife. He was born on May 12th, 1598. His kindred were in humble circumstances, although his father, a citizen of London, by trade a turner, was of sufficient standing to be elected churchwarden of his parish, St. Leonard's, Eastcheap. He filled that office in 1599. "We have but few ghmpses of him, but those show him to have been a man of sincere piety, and of a most affectionate disposition. These qualities were, indeed, the leading characteristics of the whole family, and in none of them were more conspicuous than in the amiable mother of our author. She died when he was only five years old, but it is clear that he preserved an affectionate regard for her memory. Among his papers is a careful copy of " A Faithful! Memoriall of my owne Mother that is deceased," drawn up by her husband. It is preceded by the following characteristic memorandum of the domestic customs of the time : " John Wal- VOL. I. b

X INTRODUCTION.

lington, about tte age of thirty yeares, was contracted and handfasted unto Elizabeth. Hall, about the age of twenty years, with a full consent of her Father and her Mother in the presence of that reverent man and his wife, Mr. Barber the preacher, and Mrs. Barber, at a solemn supper for that purpose, and about ix or x weeks after were publicly married on the xxiiii of November 1583."

The portrait that this " Memoriall " gives us is minute and graphic. " This godly, religious and virtuous woman the Mother of those within written twelve children, departed this mortal miserable life on the XX day of November 1603 about five of the clock in the morning, being the Sabbath day. And not long before the Lord took her happy soul unto Himself, she uttered these words, ' Lord, shall I this day keep my Sabbath with thee ? ' It pleased the Lord her merciful Father for causes known unto Himself to chasten this His dear daughter with much sickness and weakness of body both before she was married and after ; besides the usual household griefs, she had but little time of health, but especially after the death of her Father Anthony Hall^ sometime Citizen and Skinner of London, a man of long continuance and good report in this city, whom she dearly loved, whom the Lord took away six years and about a quarter before her.

" She was very loving and obedient to her parents, loving and kind to her husband, very tender hearted to her children, much ajBPecting the

INTRODUCTION. xi

sincere preachers of God's Word, loving all that were godly, much misHking the wicked and profane. She was a pattern of sobriety unto many; yery seldom was seen abroad, except at church; when others recreated themselves on hohdays and other times, she would take her needlework and say, ' here is my recreation.' She was of fine inventions for drawing works, and other choice works, and many a fine and a neat piece of work hath she soon dispatched, she would so apply [to] it ;■ besides a very good judgment in setting out works in colours, either for birds or flowers. God had given her a pregnant wit and an excellent memory. She was very rife and perfect in aU the stories of the Bible, likewise in all the stories of the Martyrs, and could readily turn to them ; she was also perfect and well seen^ in the English Chronicles, and in the Descents of the Kings of England. She lived in holy wedlock with the Husband of her youth twenty years 'wanting but four days.

" These are the glories of a worthy praise. Which of this virtuous woman now are read^ In honour of her life and latter days. To number her among the blessed dead." ^

' i. e. well skilled.

" It's a Bchoolma^ter Well seen in music;" — Tarn, of Shrew, i. 2;

2 The twelve children of John and Elizabeth Wallington, according to the list appended to the " Memoriall," were :— • Anne born August 11, 1584 ; Elizabeth, Aug. 18, 1585 ; John, October' 13, 1587; Hannah, July 23, 1589.; Mary, September 26,

b 2 xii INTRODUCTION.

John "Wallington married again twice. Joan, the second wife, died in May 1605, at the age of forty. A third wife died in August 1634. Her only child, probably Nehemiah's sister Patience, married Henry Church, " a very honest Christian man." A nephew of hers, John Allen, a minister, seems to have married a cousin of Nehemiah. A family with such parents at its head would be carefully and piously educated, and Nehemiah tells us that he was brought up in the ways of God, like young Timothy.

" When I dwelt in the house with my father," he says, " I did use every day to go up alone into the high garret to pray, whether for fashion's sate, or custom's sake, I know not."

The tenderness of his conscience was very great, and the recollection of the offences of his childhood pressed heavily upon him as he grew into manhood. The strong young man battled vigorously against the evil tendencies which troubled him, and despair at the apparent fruitlessness of the efforts which he made led him even to entertain thoughts of suicide. He was not contented with bewailing his shortcomings. He laid down " Rules for his daily life,"

1590; Sarah, December 1, 1592; another John, May 20, 1594; Martha, August 27, 1595 ; Samuel, October 20, 1596 ; Nehemiah, May 12, 1598 ; Dorcas, October 24, 1600 ; another Sarah, November 28, 1602.

It will be observed that these are all Scripture names. AVe find Nehemiah writing in a prayer which he has recorded, " Cause us to think on the signification of our Names, and to answer that which our parents did expect in the following of our predecessors."

INTRODUCTION. xiii

and we find a series of "Articles made by me, Nehemiali Wallington, for the reformation of my life ;" and used various " outward means " to help himself in "the conquest of self in the battle of sin." Of these we will give a specimen. After bewailing his infirmity of temper, he describes his plan for curing himself, and it would, doubtless, add greatly to the comfort of many a household if all bad tempers were similarly treated. We preserve his own spelling in this extract.

" The outward meanes that I haue vsed to ouercome this hasti crabbit nature of mine are these. Sometimes I haue gon in to another roume by my selfe, til my anger is ouer, and then com again. Somtime I went abroad, and then com again when my wrath is past. Somtimes I haue gone to bead when I haue been angred, and lay awhile till my anger is past, and then I haue rose, and piit on my does, and haue bin friends again."

One word more about the " Articles," to which we have referred, and Nehemiah shall say it himself.

" I would of myself (by these Articles) run in all haste apace, even a gallop to Heaven. But now I find it by woeful experience that I am entangled, and have laid too heavy a burden on myself, that I am not able to bear, in so much that my going to heaven hath been like unto Pharaoh's chariots when the wheels were struck off, they went heavily and slowly, so that they drove them with much ado ; even so hath my Christian walk been to heaven, xiv INTRODUCTION.

slowly and witli mucli ado, so that now at the last I must lay down all and say (with the poor publican) ' the good Lord be naerciful to me a sinner.' "

We hear but little of mental conflict after this, for Nehemiah had found peace.

In early life he expressed a strong disinclination to matrimony ; but it appears to have been in the latter part of the year 1619, or early in 1620, that he changed his views on the subject, and married Grace Eampain. He rarely alludes to her without some expression of affection, and he mentions as a help in his spiritual course " the good counsel of my loving wife, for I have often entreated her to mark my life, and to tell me when I do amiss."

We have been unable to trace anything respecting her parentage. Two brothers are mentioned, Zachariah, a man of good estate, who was murdered by the Irish rebels in 1641 — his wife and two children were subsequently sheltered in Nehemiah's house ; and Livewell, who appears to have been a minister, at Burton, near Lincoln, and afterwards at Broxholme. Nehemiah's affections were deep and tender, like those of many men of strong character, and his notices of his children, their ailments, and accidents, prove that he was a loving father, even to sensitiveness. His brother-in-law, Livewell Eampain, writes of him as " an indulgent Pather, and a loving Husband."

Nehemiah had entered into business on his own Account shortly before his marriage, and had taken

INTBODUCTIOK xv

a house in Little Eastcheap. His father occupied one in the same street, at the corner of Pudding Lane, and the one Avhich he selected was between that and Pish Street Hill. The narrow street still stands, but few of the busy multitude that pass the end of it on their way down Gracechurch Street to London Bridge think of the curious memories that cluster around it.

Eastcheap, as a modern writer tells us, was " the old Saxon market, celebrated from the time of Eitzstephen to the days of Lydgate for the abundance and variety of the provisions sold there."

In Stow's time Eastcheap was " a Eleshmarket of Butchers, there dwelling on both sides of the^ street ; it had sometime also Cooks mixed among the Butchers, and sucb other as sold victual ready dressed of all sorts. For of old time when Friends did meet, and were disposed to be merry, they went not to a tavern, but to the Cooks, where they called for what Meat they liked, which, they always found ready dressed."

Lydgate' s ballad of London Lickpenny tells of the Cooks of Eastcheap crying their wares to the passers-by, "Hot Eibs of Beef!" roasted, "Pies weU baked ! " and other dishes ; as well as of " the clattering of pewter, pots, harp, pipe, and sawtrie." Eastcheap was, evidently, a place renowned for feasting and mirth, and so Sir John Falstaff and his boon companions found it. The Boar's Head, the .scene of their festivities, exists no longer; but the xvi INTRODUCTION.

stone sign was preserved for many years in the front of a house that stood upon its site.

In October 1622, his first child was horn, a daughter, who was named Elizabeth; and his son John, in January 1624.

In the same year, I^ehemiah had a severe illness, from which he recovered but slowly, and, after that, he writes of another cause of suffering. "We again preserve his own orthography. " My louing Father deed afiflict mee in my body, for I was troubled very much with the towth ach : so that I tooke littel rest rdght and day, and it cost me about eaight shillings in things to helpe mee, and yeet could finde but littel ease."

In 1625 London was visited with fearful mortality, and we will transcribe his own description of it, which he entitled

"A Thankful Eemembeance.

" That in the year of our Lord 1625, it pleased God to send among us in this city and the suburbs such a plague (for our sins and abominations) that there died in one week in August fi2Q^, and from the 6 of January to the twenty-seven of October, forty-three thousand two hundred sixty and five. I and my wife and my children continuing still in this doleful city, hearing of bells tolling and ringing out continually, could not but make us wonder at the hand of Grod to be so hot round about us, and yet we should escape ; and hearing of the death of

INTRODUCTION. xvii

SO many of our acquaintance, and seeing of coffins going by almost every day, and hearing how God had swept away whole families, and taken away fifteen or sixteen out of some houses, leaving one or two in the house ; and we did hear that one woman laid eight pair of sheets in Mary Whitechapel Churchyard. And we did hear of threescore children died out of one alley, and thirty out of another alley, and many more out of other places, [which] made us wonder that the Lord should spare us and ours, we being as great sinners as they : and thus would I say to my family, although we escape now, yet when there dieth but two or three in a week one of us may be one of them, and therefore not to be secure, but every one of us to prepare for death. And my wife would say unto the maid when she had done amiss, ' Why, Ruth, mend it, for how doth thou know but thou mayest die this sickness time, although the biUs do grow less ; and when there dieth but two or three in a week, you or I may be one of those two for aught we know, and therefore let us prepare for death.'

" And thus would I meditate with myself alone : what if the sickness should come into this house ; wlu> would I willing spare ? Then would I say, the maid. Who next ? My son John. Who next ? My daughter Elizabeth. Who next ? Myself But what if Grod should strike thy wife, or thy Father, or thy Brother John '? How would I take it then ? I did think to take it patiently and to comfort xviii INTRODUCTION.

myself in the Lord, considering the sorrows and troubles they were gone out of, and the pleasure and joy that they are gone into. ' For in thy presence is the fulness of joy, and at thy right band there are pleasures for evermore.' Many tears I did shed with these thoughts, and I desired the Lord, if it might stand with His glory and my soul's good, that I might die first and never see that day.

"And now will I set down the Lord's fatherly dealing with us. For upon Friday being the seventh day of October, we did all, I and my wife, my daughter Elizabeth, my son John, my maid Ruth, and my sister Patience, went unto Lewisham, partly for refreshment, and partly to see my sister Sarah ; and going by water, the sculler rowed his boat over the cable rope of a ship which, as we all do think, was two foot above the water. And it was the great mercy of God that the boat did not overwhelm us all ; and being low water, he rowed his boat two or three times upon the gravel, [so] that his boat stuck fast, and put us in great fear ; but God of His goodness carried us safe thither at the last, where we were all very merry together. And so we came all safe home again, the Lord's name be praised for evermore. A.men.

"And on the next day, being Saturday in the afternoon, Buth told my wife that she had a pricking in her neck, which words put us all in fear, 'and toward night she went to bed. And about eight o'clock at night my wife was in the kitchen washing

INTBODUCTION, six

of dishes ; my daughter Elizabeth then being merry went unto her Mother, and said unto her, ' What do you here, my wife ? ' And at night when she was abed, says she to me, ' Father, I go abroad to-morrow, and buy you a plomet [sic] pie.' These were the last words that I did hear my sweet child speak, for the very pangs of death seized upon her on the Sabbath day morning, and so she continued in great agonies (which was very grievous unto us the beholders) till Tuesday morning, and then my sweet child died at four o'clock in the morning, being the eleventh day of October, and was buried that day at night.

" The grief for this child was so great that I forgot myself so much that I did offend Grod in it ; for I broke all my purposes, promises, and covenants with my Grod, for I was much distracted in my mind, and could not be comforted, although my friends speak so comfortably unto me. And my wife said unto me, ' Husband, I am persuaded you offend God in grieving for this child so much. Do but consider what a deal of grief and care we are rid of, and what a deal of trouble and sorrow she is gone out of; and what abundance of joy she is gone into. And do but consider it is your daughter's wedding day, and will you grieve to see your daughter go home to her husband Christ Jesus, where she shall never want, but have the fulness of joy for evermore? Consider how willingly Abraham went to offer up his only son Isaac, although he were to be his own executioner.' Then said I to my wife, ' Do you not

XX INTRODUCTION.

grieve for this child ? ' ' No, truly, husband, if you will believe me, I do as freely give it again unto God, as I did receive it of him.'

" Forasmuch then as I did struggle thus under the hand of Grod at one lash, therefore He took me in hand again, and came a little nearer ^ unto me. For my wife was struck sick on the next Friday, and on the Sabbath day and Monday., she was so sick that my mother, the midwife, the doctor, and others of my friends that did see her said she would not continue long with me, which made me so much the more to bestir myself in prayer to God for her. And the Lord did hear my prayers, and the prayers of His church for her, in the restoring her to health again : His Name be praised ! For I was verily persuaded that He could restore her again, although the sentence of man be passed ; for the Lord brings down to the gates of death, and raiseth up again, His Name be blessed and praised for evermore. Amen.

"After all this, what quarrellings, greivious reproaches, and slanders I and my wife had, the Lord knows that knoweth all things,"

Poor Nehemiah ! he was distracted indeed. But to continue his narrative : —

" I did hear likewise that in WTiitechapel there is a place called Med Lion Court, and ten or more tenements in that Court, and all the men, women, and children died out of those tenements this sickness time ; and not one left.

' Nearther.

INTBODUCTION. xxi

" And on the first of December, about six o'clock in the morning, my wife was safely delivered of a man-child, contrary to our expectation; the Lord's name be praised for it. His name was Neliemiah.

" The thing that here I take notice of is the great mercy of God in the restoring of my wife to health, and giving her safe deliverance, having so small means as she had ; and she and the child being both well. The Lord's name be praised now and for evermore. Amen. Amen.

" Now that the Lord hath [heard] my prayers in saving us as brands pulled out of the fire, when He hath taken away so many ; and this year there hath died in London and the out-parishes fifty-four thousand two hundred sixty and five ; what cause have I to be thankful unto the Lord, and to say with the prophet David —

" Psalm cxvi. 1. I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my prayers."

His brother-in-law, Livewell Eampain, sent him an aflfectionate letter of consolation and sympathy from Burton upon the death of the Kttle girl, and his old friend and valued minister, the Eev. Henry Robrough wrote also to him on the same occasion. Copies of both letters have been preserved.

In the following year he was again called to taste the bitterness of bereavement, for his " sweete sonne John," whose recovery from illness, fourteen months before, he had chronicled with great joy, died on April the 5th. Very touching it is to find this sxii INTBODUGTION.

strong and rugged man tenderly recording the infantine and imperfect utterances of his dearly loved little one during the few hours' illness which ended his life. In June of the same year we find him noticing a narrow escape that he had. "While helping a labourer to take down a chimney that the foundation of his house might be repaired, the gable end of the house fell in, and he was buried in the rubbish, but he was extricated without injury.

In December, 1627, his daughter Sara (as the name appears in the register of her baptism and of her marriage) was born. Within three weeks after her birth, the fire, which, as he says, they were keeping in the chamber because the weather was cold, burned under the hearth, and nearly set the house on fire. A similar accident was threatened in October 1628, when a candle hanging over his head in a wire ' candlestick, fell down, and was just detected in time to prevent the threatened mischief.

In the following November his little IN"ehemiah died, and a wail broke from the very depths of this affectionate father's heart. " A bitter portion indeed it was to part from an only son ; " but with his habitual resignation he adds, "yet it was wholesome."

In 1629 the house was, for a third time, nearly set on fire, and again it was from the candle falling through the " wier candlestick ; " but it was, in this case, the fault of a careless servant.

Another trial awaited Nehemiah in this year.

INTBODUCTION. xriii

A journeyman, who had worked with him for two years, of whom he had thought highly, robbed him of nearly 100^. He had been wondering at the gradual decay of his estate, and at the unexpected accumulation of debts, while his trade was so good ; Nehemiah and his wife accused each other ; but at last suspicion fell upon the man, on his proposing to enter into business for himself. After strong denial on his part, and much tender entreaty from Neheraiah (who pleaded with him one day for three hours) he confessed the theft, and his master forbore to take the law against him. "Surely if he had tarried a little longer with me," he writes, " he would have quite undone me. And now that there is a dead time of trading come on this very great loss, and housekeeping very chargeable, it hath almost broke my back. But God can and will raise me up again, and restore unto me double."

In February 1630 he was gladdened by the birth of another .son, whom he named Samuel.

During this year he seems to have begun the book which we now place before the public. This is a quarto volume of 281 folios, preserved in the British Museum, clearly and neatly written, but more carelessly towards the end of the volume ; lettered on the back, " Historical Notes and Meditations, 1583-1646."*

* Additional MSS., No. 21, 935. The following memorandum appears on a %-leaf: — "This boob was sold at Gulston's Sale, 1783-4, for £1 12s." "Vide Seperiorium Bibliographicum, article " Grulston."

xxiv INTRODUCTION.

The taste for collecting which made hirri, when a young man, gather out of the Bible all the judgements of God against the wicked, and to write them on a piece of paper, seems to have grown upon him, and the deep interest which he evidently took in his eventful times led him to extract from the " weekly bokes," as he calls the little quarto pamphlets which then began to issue from the press in large numbers, such intelligence as he considered important, and to copy them into his book. He has thus formed, as the writer of the article referred to states, " a valuable addition to our means of judging for ourselves of the period to which it refers well worth attention from all who desire to see a lively picture of the times in which he lived."

His industry must have been very great indeed, for he was also diligent in the business of his calling. " I did rise at 5, 4, 3, and some times at toe o'clock in the morning," he wrote, "and first I were ia priuate prayer to my God, and then went about my calling ; and God sent in such a blissing, that it made me wonder and stand amassed, for I tooke 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, nay once I tooke tenne pounds one a

Described thus: "Wallington (NeLemiah), a Puritan, his Journal, begun in 1630, a most curious MS., containing much extraordinary matter. 4to. £1 12s."

An appended note records the purchase of the volume by the British Museum of John Godwin, 11th April, 1857. In the following month a notice of this MS. appeared in the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' in which it was characterised as belonging " to that most valuable class of materials for history, contemporary documents, furnished by actors in the scenes they describe."

INTRODUCTION. xxv

day." "We must therefore imagine the persevering compiler, after his shop was closed in the evening, snugly ensconcing himself in his " studdy," where he kept his numerous " botes ; " with others of more pretension, such as Sibb's ' Bruised Eeed,' Beard's ' Theatre of God's Judgments,' and his much loved Geneva Bible, from which he always quoted. He thus affords a proof of the hold that that version retaiaed upon the people long after the present authorised one was prepared for their use. He quotes, or . refers to, more than three hundred of the tracts of which copies are preserved in the British Museum as the ' King's Pamphlets,' and there are many of his paragraphs which we have not succeeded in tracing home to their source. These, with the hundred and three petitions which he mentions as having collected, must have formed an unusually large library for a city tradesman ia those days.

^ This Commonplace-book, as we may term it, was begun on a regular plan, the writer having made his selection of subjects, and classified his extracts by entering each one under its own heading. This is , indicated by the running titles which he wrote at the top of each page, by the arrangement of the dates, and by the occurrence of blank half-pages, or even more^ in various places in the volume.